Why Rich Pinoys Might Not Be Very Admirable

I declare with absolute certainty that Pinoys can be among the best in the world.

It is a fact that certain watchdog groups have already ranked the Philippines as one of the "Top 10" most corrupt nations on Earth ( haha ), thereby according it a place on that peculiar pedestal reserved only for such an "elite" group--however, despite the rounds of laughter this would provoke from the average Pinoy concerning such an honor, it is a conferment I'm sure most of us would rather hide under whatever cover in wholehearted shame.

We can still be among the Top, but of course we seek some demonstration of this which would elevate the Pinoy toward a different league, some achievement or status that commands unabashed pride, congratulations, acclaim, and perhaps even emulation.

Fortunately, all of us can take heart that a true blue Pinoy, Efren Reyes, is one such demonstration in the world of contemporary professional billiards. A Wikipedia entry declares:

It's further gratifying to know that Efren Reyes is not alone in the world of sports as both a Pinoy and a paragon of excellence which millions would envy. Who could ever ignore the equally formidable presence of Manny "the Pacman" Pacquiao in boxing? The Ring Magazine ostentaniously displays this:

By now it is widely known that part of the mystique surrounding both of these undisputed kings of their disciplines is that both of them started out as piss-poor, having been born into lives so deprived that it still borders on the remotest of probabilities that others like them could rise from the shackles of ghetto existences and emerge into sparkling prominence today. Since the resources and tools from which the motivation for pursuing excellence normally should spring has been absent from the circumstances surrounding Reyes and Pacquiao, the irony only makes their achievements all the more profoundly spectacular.

After all, isn't the drive to be the best more enabled in lives which have greater access to many factors which ought to encourage it? The experience of well-rounded education, freedom from desperate need for material goods, a wider variety of options and avenues for self-improvement--aren't these found more prevalent among those Pinoys who belong to the upper crust of our country's society? Perhaps it wouldn't be too farfetched to conceive that more figures such as Pacquiao and Reyes--Pinoys who bested everybody in the world at what they do--ought to emerge from privilege and not from the lack of it? To put it bluntly, shouldn't richer Pinoys also be the best in the world at what they do?

Granted, most of the "elite class" of Pinoys would most probably be engaged in enterprises other than being sportsmen. It is without a doubt that rich Pinoys are among the backbones of the nation's economy, the harbingers of wealth. Elite Pinoy families influence most of the country's interests in business and commerce. Their stock and trade is in capitalism and in the corporate arena, where the outpouring of their skills make possible the generation of jobs and wages for millions and millions of other Pinoy families, therefore sustaining the lives of the same.

In fact, as proof and document of these same efforts rich Pinoys exert in business and commerce ( again, their most preferred arena of expertise ), lists are often made detailing the exceptional achievements of this elite group. Posted below is one such example:

These companies being mostly owned and controlled by rich Pinoys, the list affirms in definitive fashion that they are not hesitant to make use of their resources and talents to make more wealth available not only to themselves but to those legions of Pinoys they employ ( and therefore, sustain ).

However, the question remains--in their fields of expertise, is it demonstrable that rich Pinoys are, much like Reyes and Pacquiao, also in the league of the best of the best in the world? Such lists like the one above reflects an heirarchy found in the Philippines, but are there other lists where--if the convention of boxing rankings become the model somehow, for the sake of argument--the "top pound-for-pound" rich people of all nations, so to speak, are converged and ranked? Would rich Pinoy familes who control major Pinoy corporations also figure prominently in such rankings?

Yes, such lists do exist, and Forbes Magazine, for one, would assiduously provide rankings among the world's elite all the time. Their latest roster of top performing companies ( again, owned by the richest people in the world ) run something like the one below:

Apparently, rich Pinoy companies, ergo rich Pinoys, aren't on the list.

Pinoy boxers and cuemasters like Pacquiao and Reyes are plucked from lives of poverty and deprivation, then rise to become honored as among the best and greatest in world rankings in their chosen fields.

Why can't rich Pinoys, who are supposed to have had the undoubtedly better chances at becoming the best in the world in their own specialties, do the same? Again, privilege and wealth ought to engender much wider opportunities for pursuing and reaching levels of achievement which should downright be more spectacular than what two once-dirt-poor Pinoy athletes have shown. Why have no rich Pinoys cemented their own glories, then, in the Forbes list above?

Now, we Pinoys certainly know who the truly wealthy and rich among us are. Whole streets and business estates are named after them. They own the spritziest and possibly biggest malls in Southeast Asia. They own beer companies. They own hectares and hectares of sugar farms. They own television stations and the Philippines' power companies.  One family even owns an airline, two banks, and the most profitable venture yet--a company manufacturing different brands of cigarettes.  They own...surely a lot more than a blog would cover. And we know that this elite group is mostly composed of families. In short, the richest of the rich Pinoys are at their core a short list of people with the same last names.

Other countries and peoples have their own rich families. Would they be a part of the world's elite?

Why, of course. Toyota Motors Company, by now the largest and wealthiest automobile company in the world and one of those listed in the Forbes 500, was originally spawned by the great Toyoda clan of Japan ( the Toyodas chose the title "Toyota" instead of "Toyoda" to name their products because the former name was considered "much luckier" ), one of the elite Japanese families that sprung to prominence sometime before World War II. Toyota Motors is acknowledged as a family-run company, and you can note those selfsame words below in another clipping:

The same webpage ( http://www.answers.com/topic/eiji-toyoda ) helpfully informs us that the Toyodas, right from the creation of their first automobiles, were determined to compete with the best in the world at making cars. With focus, persistence, resourcefulness, unshakable resolve, and of course, some help from their own reserves of wealth ( since they were a rich Japanese family ), they eventually achieved their goals. Today the Toyodas are credited as having revolutionized the world's car industry much in the same way that the American industrialist Henry Ford once did.

Rich and elite Japanese families like the Toyoda clan were once loosely classified together under the term zaibatsu. As Wikipedia says:

Although today the same word has evolved into the more modern ( and allegedly more accurate ) interpretation keiratsu, the essence of its denotation remains to be the same--a group of the richest Japanese families engaging in business and commercial pursuits which performed so exceptionally well that their enterprises catapulted the whole country of Japan into its present place as the second richest country in the world. Proof of this can be seen in the same Forbes list above. Almost all the Japanese companies listed can trace their roots to the pioneering efforts of different rich Japanese families ( thus, companies which are named after their founding families like Sumitomo, Mitsui, etc. ).

Would other countries have families that are analogous to the zaibatsu/keiratsu of Japan?  Again, yes of course.

The South Koreans call their illustrious rich and elite the chaebols.  As Wikipedia also says:

It turns out that Samsung and Hyundai are family names, after all.  And most of us Pinoys would surely be aware of the how undeniably great these names have become.  

It is apparent right away that these rich South Koreans are determined to reach a level and stature that would be to wealth what Reyes and Pacquiao have reached in sports!  

Could rich Pinoys do the same?

Surely, the opportunities would be within their reach.  If others have already done it, then why can't they?  Again, if two formerly piss-poor Pinoys could trailblaze paths that resound a large clang proclaiming their presence in the map of world achievement, albeit in sports, couldn't rich Pinoys likewise do so in their chosen fields of wealth generation, given that their present circumstances could afford them vastly more infinite opportunities than simple ghetto folk to do so?  The fruits of such an effort, should it be reached, would be of almost incalculable worth to millions of Pinoys.  As the experience of Japan and South Korea had shown, it would in all likelihood be tantamount to establishing a Pinoy country at par with the First World!  

And so, wouldn't rich Pinoys prefer to find themselves in the same elite company as those in the top tiers of so prestigious a list as the Forbes 500?  

Frankly, I have to admit that this commuter, in all earnestness, would certainly hope so. 

If not, then it would be...let's just say, one reason to regard these rich Pinoys as not very admirable.  Hmmmmm.